


Standing By

by Aaron_The_8th_Demon



Series: God Damn Apocalypse [2]
Category: Van Helsing (TV 2016)
Genre: Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2019-07-28 11:23:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16240619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aaron_The_8th_Demon/pseuds/Aaron_The_8th_Demon
Summary: Three years into the apocalypse, Axel was still waiting.





	Standing By

**Author's Note:**

> Set right after Doc gets turned human again during E103.

 

Given the chance to think about it, Axel realized it annoyed him how much everything he did was under scrutiny by these ungrateful freeloaders. It was like boot camp but worse, because these fucking people were looking at him like he had all the answers and questioning all his decisions at the same time.

Axel was waiting, like always. Most of his life was spent waiting for something, and right now he was waiting for Doc to come out of the shower so that he could take a turn because the blood was dried onto his face and it was itchy as hell. Which got him to thinking about his non-relationship with Doc, because… he had kind of a thing for her, but it was starting to occur that maybe he had kind of a thing for her because for two and a half years she’d been the only living female around.

Which got his brain on Vanessa - she’d saved Doc’s life. And it was kind of amazing to watch firsthand, you know, aside from the long minutes when it didn’t look like it’d worked. Axel was still mentally chewing on that one. She could turn vampires back into humans and she looked more and more like she had some kind of instinct for killing them otherwise. But she was still… afraid. Maybe she couldn’t see how strong she was like he could.

Axel snuffed out the butt of his cigarette and leaned against the wall. He’d ducked his head into the showers long enough to leave some fresh scrubs on the bench for Doc, and now here he was, waiting, like always. Only this time it was with a towel in one hand instead of both being on his rifle. That was how things were in the life of Sergeant Axel Miller; waiting for his family to stop being dipshits, waiting for his little sister to magically reappear, waiting on MEPS to grant him entry into the Marine Corps, waiting for boot camp to be fucking over with, waiting to graduate from AIT, waiting for his tour in Afghanistan to end (which had been kind of on the tail-end of that pathetic war).

Now, three years into the apocalypse, Axel was still waiting.

Doc didn’t even look at him as she left the showers, now in blue scrubs and with a towel draped across the back of her neck. He wanted to say something to her, anything, but her body language absolutely screamed “I want to disappear into thin air and never come back,” so he kept his mouth shut and just went in for his turn.

Looking down at himself while he piled his towel and weapons onto the bench, Axel was unimpressed with the state of his uniform. Not for the first time, he thought maybe he should just go in clothes and all so that they’d be at least somewhat clean. Then he remembered that they didn’t have enough water for that shit and stripped as normal.

Getting water into his hair and on his shoulders, he almost didn’t hear the door opening and looked over his shoulder mostly by accident. It was Vanessa.

“’S okay, you can come in.” Then he frowned. “Although… should I be worried?”

“About what?” she questioned.

“Well, y’know, after what happened last time I tried to take a shower. Some guys would be nervous after that.”

“No, I… I’m not going to try that again.” She looked away as Axel turned off the water and began rubbing the shitty hospital soap onto himself. He realized that as much as he was used to seeing her naked or very close to it, the familiarity didn’t go both ways. “I got some of Wendy’s blood on me, that’s all.”

“Oh, yeah, go ahead. Just remember, the water gets shut off-”

“Yeah I got it,” Vanessa cut him off, looking annoyed.

Axel closed his eyes and started scrubbing away at his forehead to get the blood residue off. He could sense her get close to him, a little hesitant, and then the water was turned on. He still expected her to be about to try and waste a bunch of it, but she switched it off again after a moment. Working not to get soap into his eyes, he fumbled a little trying to find the knob for himself and realized as he rinsed off his face that he was still waiting. She had something to say to him, or was at least thinking about it, and he was waiting for her to start talking.

Vanessa didn’t disappoint. “So you’re really not going to turn me over to them?”

Axel opened his eyes just in time to roll them at her as he pushed the knob in again and reached for more soap. “No, I’m not. When are you going to believe me when I tell you something like that?”

“I haven’t known you that long,” she pointed out, looking over her shoulder at him.

“I’m not giving you up to those assholes,” Axel repeated. “Not even if you wanted me to. Look, why are we even talking about this? And if you’re so damn uncomfortable being around me, I figured you’d at least try to sneak a shower for yourself when I’m not looking or something.”

“Because I’m even less comfortable with everyone else,” she admitted. “At least you don’t look at me like I’m a freak.”

Axel sighed a little. He ended up going with his previous train of thought on this one. “You shouldn’t be so afraid of them. Not the survivors or the vampires. You’re a lot stronger than you think you are, I guarantee it. Prob’ly give my old CO a run for her money, even.” Her blank expression said she didn’t get the almost-joke, but he just shook his head. “Besides, we’re safe here. Safer’n anything out there, anyway. Nothing can get in without my say-so.”

He finished rinsing himself off, then went back to the bench for his towel. Something bothered him - he started feeling like he’d made a mistake somewhere along the line. A glance over told him Vanessa was processing his words, which bothered him slightly. Had he said something wrong?

It took the next couple days for Axel to realize his blunder - Vanessa _had_ believed him when he’d told her not to be afraid of the vampires. Now she’d made a run for it and twenty-something more mouths to feed had been dumped in his lap, which shackled him to the fucking hospital because there was no way he could leave this situation unattended. And that meant he was back to waiting. Waiting for Vanessa to come to her senses and come back.

Waiting for something that might never happen.

Waiting.

How long until Axel’s life would be defined by something other than waiting? He had other skills besides sitting on his ass, and it’d be nice if he got to use them again eventually.

But by now, Axel was also very _good_ at waiting.

So he’d keep waiting, just like always, because he didn’t have a choice.

He had to wait for Vanessa to come back.

**Author's Note:**

> It would be REALLY NICE if I could actually get some comments for once.
> 
> If you enjoyed this work, please feel free to check out my original WIP, [Nucleus](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10027367).


End file.
